Quality & Patient Safety

Our commitment to providing safe, quality care

Patient safety depends on creating systems that anticipate and prevent errors before they cause harm. We advocate for patient safety each and every day. By involving everyone at Valley Children's – patients, families, doctors, nurses, support staff, visitors and volunteers – we deliver safe patient care with measurable results.

At Valley Children’s, ensuring our children receive exceptional medical care while striving for zero preventable harm is central to everything we do. Our goal is to be in the top 10 percent in clinical quality for pediatric care nationwide. Our relentless commitment to improvement demonstrates substantial progress toward that goal, whether ranking among the best in neonatal care in the country, decreasing serious harm events, or implementing feedback from patient care surveys to enhance care.

Supporting a culture of safety

Much of the progress comes from our dedication to becoming a high-reliability organization, or HRO. In an HRO, everyone from the frontlines to the boardroom feels responsible for safety and behaves accordingly. This culture of safety compels peers to hold one another accountable, and encourages everyone to report errors. Many initiatives are structured around the Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goals and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Initiatives.

To support our safety culture, we've established safety behavior expectations for clinical and non-clinical staff. These expectations call everyone to make a personal commitment to safety, be accountable for clear and complete communication, and support a questioning attitude.

Additionally, we've implemented the following organizational efforts to support our culture of safety and our goal of zero preventable harm:

Each day, staff in each clinical area gather for a safety "huddle" to survey the day's schedule, plan ahead, and be proactive about patient safety considerations.

A unit-based safety coach program encourages staff to be "Safety Superheroes" and positively reinforce safety behaviors they observe, while identifying opportunities where safety behaviors could be used more effectively.

Members of Valley Children's executive leadership regularly visit clinical areas to meet with frontline staff and discuss processes that are working well and opportunities for improvement.

Working proactively to identify performance improvement measures

To continually assess the level of quality and safety we provide while caring for our patients, Valley Children's tracks and monitors our progress. Hospital executives, physicians and other bedside staff review, evaluate and address each improvement measure on a regular basis. Benchmarking activities at Valley Children’s range from national patient satisfaction comparisons to national service benchmarking groups and can include honors and designations like the Magnet Recognition Program®. We also put great confidence in our Length of Stay numbers, because kids who are better cared for go home faster. Expertise, technology and good systems help ensure quality healthcare and patient safety.

Patient safety in practice

You know your child best and we want to work with you to give your child the best care. Throughout your child’s treatment at Valley Children’s, we want you to know what to expect, how you can help us help you, and what to do if you have a concern. Learn more about a parent's role. We have created a document titled "Being Involved in Your Child’s Care" (En Espanol, Hmong), which will provide you with information you’ll need to know before visiting us. (You can download it and bring a copy with you!) If you have questions, make a list to bring with you when you see your child’s doctor.

Speak up

Valley Children’s encourages our patients and families to speak up! If you have concerns, problems, or complaints about patient safety, the quality of care or service that you received in our care, you are encouraged to speak directly to the providers, or appropriate supervisors. If you feel your concerns have not been resolved, we encourage you to contact a Valley Children’s Patient Representative at 559-353-5425.